LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - 6/5/2014

TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE Moosic letter writers are alarmed that yet another bridge in the borough, this one that connects Main Street and Lonesome Road, soon will be closed.

Real education

gets left behind

Editor: “The big year that isn’t” (Editorial, May 29) claimed that President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind “fundamentally altered public education.” It did, but for the worse.

You touted the law’s accent on accountability, noting that now we at least know “how much still needs to be done.” Accountability to what? Tests? What needs to be done? More tests?

NCLB falsely assumed that standardized tests measure education. Actually, teachers have had to abandon real education to prepare their students for their states’ tests. They succeeded — reading and math scores on state tests have increased, but the gains have not translated to improvements elsewhere.

Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress stagnated; disadvantaged students’ scores dropped. About 60 percent of community college students and about 20 percent of four-year students need remediation.

Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, noted in Time that knowing something or how to do something in real life is never defined by being able to choose a “right” answer from a set of choices. “No scientist, engineer, writer, psychologist, artist, or physician,” he said, “and certainly no scholar” does business by looking for the right answers from a set of alternatives.

Texans have an interesting expression — “Can’t raise good cattle by weighing them.” The state’s former governor ignored this wisdom. He ignored that poverty is the underlying cause of underachievement. He ignored that inadequate funding, especially in impoverished districts, intensifies problems. Since NCLB, most states cut education budgets.

NCLB did not work. We have wasted a decade.

JOSEPH ROGAN, Ed.D.

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION

MISERICORDIA UNIVERSITY

More harm ahead?

Editor: Brian Wilson proved himself as an ace interviewer in the NBC News exclusive, “The Mind of Edward Snowden.” He conducted the interview with pointed questions, that, I believe, Mr. Snowden answered in “around in circles” fashion. He didn’t seem to give direct answers.

His ego did show. He seemed to enjoy the spotlight, yet I didn’t believe he really said that much. In reference to the NSA, yes, the Patriot Act as a result of the 9/11 tragedy allowed their actions, surveillance of the worst kind. The one I blame is George W. Bush and his team who, like Snowden I believe, are traitors and should be prosecuted.

Snowden did open the “can of worms” on the NSA and its cover-up. This is good but I believe releasing this data will harm the country’s military secrets. I believe much more is yet to be revealed that could greatly harm the USA and with our allies.

I found Snowden to be intimidating and scary, yet pleasant in ways. He is a very non-trusting man, who must have had a personal agenda for all his actions, now and in the future.

How did a 19-year-old high school graduate end up with a job in the government handling the sensitive security position he had and says he’s still doing? This doesn’t sit right with me.

CATHY COER

SCRANTON

Slap at symbols

Editor: Boston residents dumped tea into the harbor to tell their British colonial masters that they’d no longer tolerate their British tea tax and taxation without representation and that they no longer wished to be colonial slaves.

Other colonists made flags saying in effect that it was wrong and dangerous for one group of people to subjugate another group of people, a thought summed up in the words “Don’t tread on me.”

Tens of thousands of American flags waving in our Lackawanna Valley cemeteries show how much the people now lying under those flags valued those revolutionary principles and our freedom.

On May 23 a Times-Tribune editorial cartoon depicted a tea party member with a T-shirt captioned “Don’t Tread on Me” being stomped under a jackboot.

The ignorance and ingratitude displayed by that cartoon was astonishing to me, especially so close to Memorial Day.

JOHN NAPE

TAYLOR

Isolation booth

Editor: Help! On June 10, they are closing yet another bridge in Moosic (“Bridge work, train could turn Moosic neighborhood into an island,” June 3). They are closing the bridge at the lower end of Main Street that connects with Lonesome Road.

The bridge on Main Street has been closed for going on four years. The bridge on Route 11 is only partially open and gets very congested at certain times of the day. The bridge on Third Street that connects with Moosic Road in Old Forge is in terrible condition. The top layer of pavement is worn off and the grating is exposed. I’m waiting for that one to be closed and then we will really be isolated.

Maybe we could get something together like the Berlin Airlift to bring in food and medicine to Moosic. There is a football field at the lower end of Moosic where helicopters can land to evacuate people to hospitals. I feel like I am living on the “island” of Moosic.

I realize these bridges are in need of repair, but isn’t there any coordination between state and county governments so that the closures are not at the same time and repairs are done as quickly as possible?

ELIZABETH ELVIDGE

MOOSIC

Speed up project

Editor: I’m writing in regards to the pending closing of the latest bridge on Main Street in Moosic. I am hopeful PennDOT realizes residents of this section of Moosic have endured the closing of the “other” bridge on Main Street since 2011. Now we are told that this second bridge must be closed due to structural issues.

Can this process be expedited? Will this project sit idle during evenings and weekends?

Due to the circumstances, this is not an ordinary bridge closing. Our section of Moosic will be at risk of extended response times to emergency services because there is now only one road open (Spring Street), which must be accessed from Birney Avenue. It is well known that Birney Avenue can become gridlocked during rush hour, back-ups on Interstate 81, and concert/baseball traffic going to Montage. We also have to deal with a railroad crossing on Spring Street.

Perhaps the projected six-month construction time can be reduced by making this an emergency job site. This is much more than just a quality of life issue — lives and property may be at stake.

MARK ZAKOSKI

MOOSIC

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